GM, Ford and Chrysler are in Washington begging for a federal bailout (handout?). Should we do it? On one hand, I get sentimental about Detroit cars and would like to see them stay in business. I've owned a lot of pretty decent Detroit iron over the the years and it would be nice to be able to buy new ones in the future. It would also be nice to keep the 400,000 UAW workers at the big three employed, along with all the workers at the big three's suppliers.
On the other hand, management runs from poor to absolutely terrible. Product design sucks. The three of them offer 250 "different" models, of which only two are three are nice enough that I'd want to buy one. The 700,000 retiree pensions are such a drag as to sink anyone. They have more retirees drawing pensions than they have workers on the payroll. The health care costs both for active and retired workers are outta sight. Maybe it would be better to let them declare bankruptcy. The workers and retirees would all loose a lot of money, when the court cancels the union contracts and voids the pensions but they would come out of bankruptcy in a position to perhaps make a little money, and a goodly percentage of the workers would still have jobs. Why should my tax dollars go to propping up the ultra plush wages and retirements of autoworkers?
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